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Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Rowan Martin Storey Knit A Long

My last post about this project was in May when I had completed about 8
squares for the blanket.To recap if you would like more details please see my post here or if
you would like to look at the other stunning projects please go to Ravelry here.The official knit a long ended in July, but I knew that I would not be
finished by then. Also as the wool was so expensive I wanted to make the most
out of knitting it for as long as I could!

I finished mine a few weeks ago and absolutely love it. It is so warm and heavy;
the wool looks beautiful and is soft on your skin. Me the cats and even my boyfriend
have been snuggling on the sofa with it, now the weather is getting colder I
finished it at the perfect time.I thoroughly enjoyed this project, I only got a bit bored when I had about 5
squares to go and that was as I had left a few of the more difficult patterns until then.

48 sqaures in total

Crochet edging

As the patterns were released weekly and involved a new pattern each time I
have really expanded my knitting knowledge. I have leant skills that I would
never have tried if I was starting a jumper or similar large project. As each
pattern was a small square, it was very satisfying to complete each one, and
also when making a mistake, you did not lose a lot of work.Having seen the other blankets on Ravelry there was a lovely thread in the
Rowan group about 'signature squares' and some people posted very unique and
personal squares. I decided to do this too and chose to write a small chart for
it. I wanted to include my initials and the year and I based the square design
on the principles of the week 2 (Nordic Star) version. I added in a cable
owl as I wanted to learn how to make these and I thought it was cute!

Signature square

I blocked the squares as I went along in batches for 8 to 10, although a
couple were blocked again. The only changes I would make would be to have more
rows on the week 4 (Lace Kisses) design as this was so much shorter than the other
squares.As I learnt so much in this blanket I decided to finish it off by doing a
crochet border, I used some great videos on YouTube to do this and I did a scallop
edge. I think this finished off the blanket very well.

Back of edging

Front of edging

To join the squares I used mattress stitch on the vertical joins and slip stitch on the vertical.Once the blanket was completed I was surprised by how much I had left over, it is just under half a ball of each colour. I will have to choose what to do with them now.